From Veggie to Vegan: The Non-Dairy Diary.

2008-12-03T05:03:00.000-08:00

Weds 3rd Dec.

Okay, life as a non-vegan has continued for a couple of days now. I’ve been having soya milk in tea and coffee still until today, when we ran out of it. There was enough for Sally’s cereal, but I had toast rather than have cereal with dairy milk. The coffee I had with dairy milk was good, but not significantly better than with soya. I think I’ll have mainly soya milk in coffee from now on apart from when I’m away from home. I’m not sure about tea. I think I’ll try to keep on having soya.

Oh yes, and I had egg mayonnaise for yesterday’s lunch. I wasn’t craving this as I’d thought I might be; it was just convenient as there wasn’t much else in the fridge.
What about cheese? Hmm. I did give Sally cheese in today’s sandwiches. I’m planning a cheese free meal tonight, but I’ll probably use Quorn, which isn’t vegan.

I did have horrible indigestion yesterday afternoon. I tend to get this quite often at around three o’ clock, but, looking back, I think it may have been absent whist I was vegan. There’s a thought.

Generally, I’ve felt healthy over the month, and I haven’t really felt too deprived of any particular foodstuff. It’s been easier than I thought, even from the point of view of eating out and having takeaways. However, I like the thought that life will now be even easier. It’s not so much the obvious stuff such as not having a cheese sandwich or omelette; it’s more having to avoid, say, sausages or biscuits or cereal bars which contain egg/milk/honey. These are the things I’m pleased I no longer have to think about.

On the whole I think a vegan diet is healthier, a better way to feed the world, kinder to animals, and better for the planet. I think I’ll be compromising though. I’m not going to go vegan, but I’m going to retain more of a vegan slant in my diet (and what I cook for the family). I’ll try to stick with soya milk in drinks unless I’m away from home. I’ll use less cheese. I’ll sometimes use vegan “cheese”, especially the garlic and herb soft one. I’ll continue to use vegan foods I’ve discovered or used more during the month. I’ll experiment with the egg replacement powder I bought and haven’t used so far.

So there we are. Did I lose my jelly belly? Nahh. But I’ll keep working on it!

One last thought occurs to me. Sally and I did this for a month, I suppose as a challenge, but I feel it’s important to remember that there are thousands of vegans out there, leading healthy lives in which their diet is simply a fact of life, not an issue and certainly not a challenge or gimmick. If you want any more information, I recommend the Vegan society website (www.vegansociety.com/home.php), the Vegetarian Society website (www.vegsoc.org/) or the Animal Aid website (www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/AA/HOME/).

Well, that’s it. It’s lunchtime now. Ooh, I don’t know what to have!

2008-12-03T03:35:00.001-08:00

Mon 1st Dec.

Sally has decided to stick with soya milk on cereals, and I was already having it anyway before Vegan Month. So breakfast is the same as it has been for the last month.

We have coffee morning in a café today and I have soya milk in my coffee. However, it’s disgusting! I don’t know whether the coffee is too strong or what, but the result is not good. I won’t name the establishment!

Lunch is leftovers from yesterday, so that’s vegan.

Right, what about the evening meal? Nick and I have to go to Sittingbourne at 5.15 as Nick has a trial for the Kent Schools Football Association squad. So I need to make something we can have early and which can be left for the other two to heat up easily later. I toy with the idea of risotto, or maybe quinoa; then Nick asks if we can have pasta with tomato sauce and grated cheese. And yes, this sounds quick, easy and appealing. So it is that I have my first cheese for over a month. Ooh, it does taste good! I leave the plate of cheese separate in case Sally decides not to have any.

On returning, feeling very cold, Nick and I have yet more pasta. It turns out Sally did go for the cheese option. One of her friends has bought her some chocolates, not just because she can now eat them, but to say that she’s proud of her for sticking to being vegan. Apparently another of her friends, a vegetarian who also “did” Vegan Month, is planning on remaining vegan.

I think we know that we won’t be remaining vegan, but let’s see how the next few days go.

2008-12-03T03:13:00.001-08:00

Sun 30th Nov.

I have to get a few things from Tesco this morning. As I wander round, I do feel a sense of freedom, looking at things I’ll be able to eat again tomorrow. But at the same time, there’s hesitancy. Can I bring myself to eat dairy and eggs again so readily? Well, we’ll see, won’t we? When I mention these feelings to Sally, it turns out she’s experiencing the same reluctance mixed with anticipation.

Lunch once again is falafel eaten at the side of a football pitch in the cold and damp. Nick’s team draws 2-2, so we aren’t too downhearted. Sally has developed a taste for mushy peas recently, and has them with a baked potato for her lunch.

Nick and I arrive home to find Paul rummaging in the freezer for something to cook for tea. We’ve run a bit short of vegan-friendly ingredients, as I haven’t had a proper shopping session for a while. Time to try out the Realeat chicken style pieces then. Paul decides to mince them, shape them into balls and cook in a casserole with potatoes and other vegetables and lots of herbs. (He is fond of his herbs.) The balls collapse whilst cooking, but the resulting goo is very tasty anyway, and I have two helpings.

For tomorrow’s lunchboxes, I prepare Marmite sandwiches, partly because it’s for Monday, and partly because it just doesn’t seem right to get the cheese out straight away. I even stick with dairy free spread instead of butter.

And so to bed on the final day of Vegan Month.

2008-12-03T01:03:00.000-08:00

Sat 29th Nov.

It’s a fairly early start as Paul has to get back for a hockey match, but at least we had a burglar alarm free night.

I have to say Brussels has been great where finding vegetarian food is concerned, and not as difficult as I was expecting on the vegan front either. There are more vegetarian eateries than you might think and you can find veggie food in some mainstream restaurants, sandwich shops and delicatessens much more easily than in any of the places I’ve been to in France or Spain. I suppose that’s because it’s a large cosmopolitan city. Anyway, it works for me! I do feel a bit deprived though, not being able to have waffles, pancakes and hot chocolate, those quintessential Belgian staples.

The journey back is fine, though by Northern France the cold clear weather has turned to miserable grey drizzle, which continues across the channel and greets us in England too.

Back home all is well. The kids and grandparents seem to have enjoyed each other’s company, and they’ve eaten well. We distribute presents, Paul goes to hockey, Sally goes to help with play auditions, I unpack, and Nick tries to persuade me to let his friends sleep over.

I have a light lunch of Bean Feast pate on toast as I’m going out later for a meal with a gang of school mums. We’re booked in at the Shangri la, an excellent Thai restaurant in Whitstable. It was I who chose it, as they do a choice of vegan-friendly dishes. Of course it was arranged before I knew I’d be going to Brussels and eating Thai, Chinese and rice most days. Oh well, I’ll cope.
At the Shangri la I am stunned by the revelation that they’ve run out of tofu! So I select Red Vegetable Curry instead of my usual tofu, cashew nuts and vegetables, with tempura vegetables as a starter. The starter is delicious, and so is the main course. A bit hotter (spice wise) than I really like, but the coconut milk sauce makes it all worthwhile.

We all walk back to our respective homes and I fall asleep with the thought, “Only one more day of being vegan.” running through my head.

2008-12-02T04:46:00.000-08:00

Fri 28th Nov.

Today we take the train to Bruges. Bruges is lovely – clean, neat, with plenty of character, much of which comes from the distinctive Flemish architecture.

We’ve looked up veggie restaurants on Paul’s Blackberry on the journey. There are three possibilities and we head straight off for the nearest when we arrive. Phew, there’s one table free. It’s a set menu, consisting of several different things on one plate. You can choose what size plate to go for. We are restrained and opt for medium. When it arrives it looks like I can eat everything on it. Oh goody! There are courgettes in a tempura batter (gorgeous), a brown lentil casserole, brown rice (again!), seaweed marinated in soy sauce, a cold spaghetti and basil salad (slightly disconcerting but very nice all the same), green salad, red cabbage salad in a soya vinaigrette dressing, and I think that’s it. Oh yes, and sprouts – yes, Brussels sprouts. It’s really good and we wish we’d gone for large. This place too is busy, and it appears that quite a few of the diners know each other and stop to greet each other, adding to the generally lively atmosphere. The décor is simple but elegant, very clean, bright and inviting. Yes, I’d like to come here again!

I am a little out of my comfort zone language wise in Bruges as it is very definitely Flemish-speaking. In Brussels all signs, etc. are in both French and Flemish and people in shops, restaurants, etc tend to speak French. I suppose they’re all fluent in Flemish too but I don’t know. However, the people of Bruges are amazing: everywhere we go waiters, bank cashiers – everyone - just switches effortlessly to excellent English as soon as they realise we’re English.

The market square here is fantastic. It’s smaller than the one in Brussels and is surrounded by buildings in the Flemish style. The Christmas market is in full swing, and there’s a skating rink too. Paul has a go whilst I hold the coats. Then it’s into a bar overlooking the square to warm up as it gets dark. I’d love hot chocolate but have to settle for black coffee. It’s not the same.

Back outside, after buying a few presents at the stalls and having a cup of the obligatory Gluhwein, we head for the station, mostly at a running pace as we’ve underestimated how long it will take to get there.

The Grande Place back in Brussels is now lit up in splendour. There’s a Christmas tree with lights, some tubes with constantly changing coloured lights, projected lit patterns on the buildings and spotlights on the buildings. All this and music too. And now the Christmas Market is well and truly open. We go and eat in a Chinese restaurant. The menu offers vegetable dishes with a choice of egg noodles or non-egg noodles. Excellent. I have to say, it’s nice to not be eating rice again.

I think that after that we have yet more Gluhwein.

2008-12-02T03:15:00.000-08:00

Thurs 27th Nov.

Paul has a business meeting today, so I head off on my own. My aims are to look at a couple of possible restaurants for tea, go to the Museum of Modern Art, see the Grande Place, and check out a potential lunch eatery. Oh yes, and to find a bank machine, as I have no money! And so I wander. Lovely areas of cobbled streets, interesting shops, NO BANKS. And so I keep on wandering. I find one of the restaurants from my list, which describes it as not 100% vegetarian. It looks interesting, but the veggie food isn’t vegan, so that won’t do this time. I reach the Grande Place, which is a stunning square surrounded by extremely grand old buildings. Still no banks! Going off into the side roads, I eventually find a bank machine. This unobligingly spews out 50€ notes, so I then have to go to the counter to change them. Even as I approach the counter, I can’t remember the French for “note”, but – phew – it comes to me just in time. Right, now I can relax a bit more.

I arrive at a veggie lunch bar just in time for lunch – handily. The now-familiar discussion ensues about what I can and can’t eat. There’s an amusing misunderstanding where the woman serving food thinks I don’t want to eat eggs or garlic (milk=du lait; garlic= de l’ail. But is my pronunciation really that bad?). We finally establish, however, that I can eat the Thai tofu and vegetables with rice. (More rice!) And jolly tasty it is too. Again, what do they do to the tofu to make it so good? This place fills up very rapidly, as did last night’s restaurant. There’s obviously a demand for vegetarian food in Brussels.

Refreshed, I carry on and go and look at a fully vegan (according to the list) restaurant and the health food shop beneath it. At the shop I buy cereal bars (without honey) and seitan sausages. Seitan is a meat substitute made from wheat gluten. It’s used particularly in Asian cuisine for “mock duck, pork, beef” etc.

The restaurant upstairs doesn’t appear to have a menu on show, so I give up and head back to the Art Museum. I’ve been here before, about twenty-five years ago, and remember thinking then that the huge modern art paintings were wonderful. It turns out that the ones I remember are no longer there, but I still like lots of the exhibits. Half of the museum is for Ancient Art, and I’m surprised by how much of this I like too. I’ve never been too inspired by old religious paintings before, but some of these are wonderful; the colours are gorgeous. Maybe it’s partly due to the setting. The building is huge and grand, though not over ornate, so I suppose the pictures are given the space and background to stand out as they should. One of the things I like about these older paintings is their depiction of well-proportioned women. Even the Virgin Mary has a good pair of sturdy hips on her!

Anyway, I’m there for about three hours and then Paul and I meet up and he shows me the bars of Brussels and introduces me to strawberry beer, which slips down frighteningly easily. We can’t be bothered to walk to the vegan restaurant over the health food shop, as it’s a bit of a trek, so we settle for a nearby kebab shop, where I have falafel, chips and salad and Paul has something carnivorous, chips and salad. He would have had the “Houmous Platter” but they’d run out of houmous. Replenished, we return to one of the bars. Paul does seem to know his way round the bars of Brussels rather well. Walking home, we pass through the Grande Place, where the Christmas Market stalls are set up but not yet open. Luckily, however, just a short distance away the Rotary Club are running a cheap Gluhwein stall. All along this street are huge candles in shallow pots on the ground. They look great, and really add to the atmosphere, but, come on, how do they get away with it on Health and Safety grounds?! And this is Brussels, the heart of EU Health and Safety regulations. You have to admire them.

This time the burglar alarm doesn’t go off until six o’ clock in the morning.

2008-12-01T06:48:00.001-08:00

Weds 26th Nov.

Off we go to Brussels.

Lunch is a Beanfeast pate sandwich whilst waiting to go onto the Euro Tunnel Shuttle.

It’s very exciting driving into Brussels in the dark, with the bright city lights enticing us to walk around and see what’s on offer.

Once settled into the hotel (definitely posher than a Travel Lodge), that’s precisely what we do. Paul looks at a map for about two seconds, knows exactly where to go, and we set off to look for vegetarian restaurants. The first one on my list is supposed to be open until 9.30. We find it and read on the door that it closes at 8.30. No problem; it’s only 7.45. We step in eagerly, only to be told that they stop serving food at 7.30. We step out again, with me muttering darkly about vegetarian restaurants not doing themselves any favours! After another brisk walk in the increasingly cold evening, we find the next vegetarian restaurant on the list. It’s a dream of a veggie restaurant! Sumptuous Moroccan-type décor, warm and cosy, yet fairly sophisticated. It’s a set-price buffet, with lots of delicious dishes. As a vegetarian, I would be swooping upon it and filling my plate with everything in sight. Of course, as a vegan, I have to interrogate the waiters to find out what I can eat. (So it’s just like my usual experiences of eating veggie in a non-veggie restaurant.) Anyway, the food is lovely – rice, vegetable korma, salads, braised endive (surprisingly tasty!), and other stuff I’ve forgotten. I have to confess, I am envious of some of the things Paul’s having. I am able to have dessert (included in the price, so I’m determined to have it) by eating the top part of my (non-dairy) chocolate and chestnut tart, and making Paul eat the pastry base so that it doesn’t go to waste.

A good night’s sleep is interrupted by a burglar alarm going off at about four o’ clock the next morning, followed by an extremely noisy bin lorry.

2008-11-25T14:29:00.000-08:00

Tues 25th Nov.

I hadn’t actually noticed, but apparently Sally has had to give up drinking tea this month, as she doesn’t like it with soya milk. Ah well, if she’d persevered with it she might have been all right. Still, I’m sure she’ll survive the next five days tea free.

For lunch I have a most enjoyable mayonnaise, sausage and salad sandwich, with a raw carrot, naturally.

Tea is the second half of the vegemince with spaghetti and green salad. Then I get stuck into making tomorrow’s aduki bean and vegetable casserole. It turns out well. I think I’d like to stay at home and eat it. But no, I’ll force myself to go to Brussels instead.

There will now be a short intermission whilst I go jet setting (Euro tunnelling, actually). I’ll be back on Saturday with news of the Belgian Vegan Scene.

2008-11-24T12:08:00.001-08:00

Mon 24th Nov.

Oops, I drink coffee with milk at today’s coffee morning. Whilst discussing which biscuits I can and can’t eat, I completely forget about the milk thing and happily take my mug of coffee with milk, drink it, talk about how well the vegan diet is going and enthusiastically accept another mug of milky coffee! How silly is that? And, even though I thought about it briefly earlier, I haven’t brought soya milk with me. Is it because I’ve just become too blasé about the whole business, or what? Well, obviously I need to be more careful now.

It’s gratifying, however, that during our conversation Jo tells me how well I’m looking on the vegan diet. I must say, I do feel pretty good. My energy levels are, I think, a little higher than usual. As I mentioned before, I’m not waking up feeling uncomfortably bloated. And I swear I’m feeling happier and more optimistic than usual. Maybe this is not only due to the diet, but comes partly from the therapeutic effect of writing. Or from having a change in my lifestyle? Who knows? But it makes me want to continue to write, and to retain more of a vegan ethos in my future diet. I think that if I took more exercise too I could be super-duper-healthy.

Lunch, then. Another spelt-sunflower cutlet, with tinned tomatoes and baked beans mixed together, left over from yesterday’s breakfast fry-up. Oh, and a raw carrot thrown in for good measure.

Preparations for the trip to Brussels begin with tonight’s cooking. I do a double portion of vegemince, which we can have with rice tonight and spaghetti tomorrow. This will allow me time tomorrow to cook a casserole in advance for Wednesday. Paul’s parents are coming to look after the kids and I’m trying to make it as stress free as possible for them. This way, at least they won’t have to cook the first night they’re here.

Time to start looking up the delights of Brussels on the internet. Paul hands me a brochure about the hotel. Ooh, definitely posher than a Travelodge.

2008-11-24T01:54:00.000-08:00

Sun 23rd Nov.

Let me start with another “I forgot to mention…” I received my copy of “The Vegetarian” magazine the other day, and looked eagerly through to see if my letter had been printed. It had! It was in response to a man who had written in extolling the joys of eating the occasional piece of freshly caught fish, and hoping that the “fanatical side” of the Vegetarian Society wouldn’t all condemn this. I wrote back pointing out that it wasn’t unreasonable or fanatical for the Vegetarian Society to stand up for vegetarianism! This is symptomatic of a current debate about fish eating. Of course vegetarians do not eat fish as fish are animals and vegetarians don’t eat animals. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who eat no meat other than fish calling themselves vegetarian. Hence, confusion and vegetarians being offered fish everywhere they go. It’s not a case of judging people for eating fish; it’s just that if they do, they can’t claim to be vegetarian.

Reading my first ever “The Vegan” magazine yesterday, I saw that they too have an ongoing debate: is it okay to eat the eggs from rescue hens, i.e. hens no longer wanted by battery farms and kept in relative freedom in a back garden? I suppose the argument is that the hens are not being exploited, you can’t stop them from laying eggs, the eggs are not fertilised, so what else can you do with them? It’s similar, I guess, to the idea of someone who is otherwise vegetarian eating road kill animals. I know, it seems gross, but I have read of someone who does this, and I can’t think of a moral objection. No doubt somebody else can.

Anyway, onto lighter subjects. As we’ve had one of Paul’s friends staying overnight, Paul does a big fry-up breakfast. For Sally and I this is Linda McCartney sausages (half price in Tesco this week), baked beans, and sauté potatoes and mushrooms. Yum!

Everyone sorts their own lunch out, from an assortment of soup, cold pizza and bagels with Marmite.

For evening meal, we have chip shop chips and a tin of mushy peas. Yes, I know it’s not a healthy balanced meal, but it’s dark, it’s raining, it’s Sunday night, and we don’t care!

2008-11-22T11:46:00.000-08:00

Sat 22nd Nov.

I forgot to mention, I joined the Vegan Society the other day. You can still join even if you’re not actually a vegan, as long as you’re sympathetic to their aims. Today all my stuff arrives: membership card, magazine, information, leaflets on different issues, along with a copy of the Animal Free Shopper and a vitamin and mineral supplement that I’d ordered. The supplements were incredibly cheap and contain the right amount of daily-required iodine, the only thing I was worried about lacking.

I take Nick for a cool dude haircut this morning and then Paul comes and meets us for coffee. After much traipsing about, we finally find a coffee shop in Whitstable with a table free. They don’t have soya milk, but I’ve remembered to bring my own. The waitress asks me if I’m a vegan, and declares herself to be one. She is very encouraging and I’m pleased to meet a real vegan. I wonder how many more there are in Whitstable and what their lives are like.

Lunch is leftover pasta with tofu-hazelnut cutlet for me and spelt-sunflower cutlet for Sally. Nick has a veggie frankfurter sandwich (not suitable for vegans) and Paul has gone to play hockey by now.
The afternoon flies by as Sally and I watch a Doris Day and Rock Hudson film. I feel this sort of thing is an important part of her education. I’m particularly looking forward to the Fred and Ginger section of the syllabus.

During this time, the bread machine has obligingly been preparing pizza dough for me, and after the film (Yes, after all the initial comic hostilities they fall in love, get married and have a baby) I make pizzas with vegan “cheese”, tomato paste and vegetables. It’s quite good, though one of the “cheeses” has a slightly odd taste. I won’t get that one again. The other type is fine though.

I can’t believe we’re nearly two-thirds through vegan month. So far, I’m not missing eggs, though finding egg free foodstuffs can be tricky. As for cheese, well, I would rather have real cheese than the vegan versions, but I can actually manage fairly well without cheese at all for now. I think Sally would miss cheese more than I would if we gave it up completely, but then I like nuts and pulses a lot more than she does, and could happily live on these – I think!

2008-11-21T11:26:00.000-08:00

Fri 21st Nov.

I realise that earlier in the blog I got a couple of my societies mixed up and wrote about Animal Aid when it should have been the Vegetarian Society, and didn’t write about Animal Aid when it really was them! I’m sure this hasn’t had any great impact on your life, but, in the interests of accuracy and fairness, I have now edited the entries for 10th and 12th to say the right things about the right people. One of the errors was that I said that The Vegetarian Society had put a link to this blog from their website. Of course, I really meant that Animal Aid had done that. Not that it actually matters to anyone reading this, as obviously you’ve found the blog anyway. And if you hadn’t, you wouldn’t have been able to read the wrong information anyway. Okay, I’m getting confused now so I’ll stop.

Today’s trip to Tesco is uneventful, though I do discover that Green and Black’s dark cooking chocolate is suitable for vegans, so I grab a bar of that for when Sally decides to get herself into the kitchen and start baking delectable chocolate offerings for us all.

Lunch is the remains of yesterday’s casserole, and after a suitable length of time I do my exercise video. Yes, video: I’ve been doing it for about ten years and we’re both going strong. As I’m doing it at a later time of day from usual, and it’s just getting dark and I have the lights on, I can see my reflection in the patio doors as I stretch and bounce. It’s strange, but I don’t look anything like as elegant as the people in the video. Maybe I should be wearing Lycra?

Tea has to be early again tonight as Sally is doing her Dance Evening again. I decide on pasta, vegetables and pesto, this being reasonably close to what’s required on Stuffed Pasta Friday. However, even as I write, Paul and Nick arrive home from school Hockey Club (which Paul helps to run) and Nick declares that they are having stuffed pasta with cheesy sauce. So Paul disappears into the kitchen. Then I tell him that I have to go first because of Sally. He chops us both an onion then I take over. Sally and I eat our DELICIOUS pasta pesto while he cooks for Nick and himself. Now I know it’s not a competition but mine definitely looks more appetising, AND I leave the kitchen tidier.

I take Sally into Canterbury, Paul and Nick go and do manly things at Scouts (Paul also helps at Scouts – what a civic-minded chap he is), and now it’s time for a Friday night glass of red (It’s okay, someone else is bringing Sally home.) and a quiet read. Grand, as we say in Yorkshire.

2008-11-21T01:01:00.000-08:00

Thurs 20th Nov.

I venture into Canterbury again, primarily to see if Marks and Spencer have anything to tempt me to spend my birthday voucher on in their 20% off day. It turns out they haven’t, and even if they had, I can’t be bothered joining the enormous queues for the changing rooms and tills. Naturally I visit Canterbury Wholefoods. I stock up on those items I’ve recently come to think of as “the usual things” as well as a bar of Plamil’s vegan alternative to milk chocolate. I go mad and buy a sandwich for lunch there too – Vegan Bean Burger, Chilli Jam and Sprouts. Luckily, the sprouts are alfalfa and radish sprouts (Radish sprouts? I’ve never come across them before.), as opposed to Brussels sprouts. And the chilli “jam” is made up of peppers, tomatoes, chillis, cumin, ginger, sugar and balsamic vinegar. A notice tells me that the sandwiches are made in the Good Food Café above the shop. Feeling utterly reckless, I also buy a vegan cake (not made in the café) for afters. This turns out to be a little on the heavy side, but, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m not that fussy, and enjoy it anyway.

Holland and Barrett has Jumbo Sos Rolls in today so we’re okay for tomorrow’s lunchboxes.

Before leaving Canterbury, I swing by The Goods Shed. This is a wonderful daily Farmers’ Market, held in a converted – yes, you guessed it – goods shed next to Canterbury West railway station. Here, unsurprisingly, I buy fruit and veg. Much of it is of the non-EU knobbly kind with real soil still attached. I love this place; I don’t know why I haven’t been for so long.

It’s a mad dash to prepare a beany vegetable casserole for an early tea. We’re having tea early because we’re all off to watch Sally in her school’s Dance Evening. Yes, more prancing around on the stage. Actually, it’s a bit of a feat to actually be going to the evening this year. For the last three years I’ve bought tickets to go and someone or other’s always been ill and we’ve ended up not going. So now there’s great excitement and anticipation in the air. We have to drop Sally off an hour before the show starts, so to fill in the time we head into Canterbury city centre and a Wetherspoons (spell check comes up with “waterspouts” here!) pub. The Thursday curry night menu is out on the tables and I note that they have one that is suitable for vegetarians, and …if you order extra poppadoms instead of naan, it’s suitable for vegans. I’m impressed that they’ve thought of this. And they have a veggie option in their Christmas menu which looks imaginative. Though, as Nick points out, there is only the one veggie choice among several meat options on the curry menu. Although I do appreciate it when I go to a restaurant or a “do” and there’s a vegetarian option, it would be SO nice to have a choice, like the other people. I find it odd that the providers just assume that all vegetarians will like the option they’ve put forward, whilst not expecting all meat-eaters to want the same thing. After all, we’re usually paying the same price as everybody else. They get a choice; we have to put up with what we’re given, having paid quite a lot for the privilege. Luckily, I like pretty much everything, so I’m usually okay.

Anyway, the Dance Evening is very entertaining and we go home worn out with clapping.

2008-11-20T01:09:00.000-08:00

Weds 19th Nov.

I’ve started to look forward to tea and coffee breaks again, as I don’t notice much difference with coffee, and tea is also starting to taste “normal” with soya milk At first, I tasted the soya more than the tea, but now it tastes like tea again. Hurray!

Once again I have leftovers for lunch: yesterday’s pasta with some extra sweet corn.
Then it’s on to the internet for some important research. Paul and I are off to Brussels next week. It was supposed to be a surprise for me, with me being whisked off at the last minute, but Sally thought we were doing something on one of the dates, so Paul had to check with me. Of course, she could have just looked on the calendar and seen that we weren’t, but never mind! So, I look up vegan restaurants in Brussels on the Happy Cow website: http://www.happycow.net/. You may snort in disbelief, but it turns out that there are two vegan restaurants, five vegetarian restaurants, and two veggie friendly restaurants, not to mention several health food shops. So we should survive. Of course I could be being hopelessly optimistic. Our experience of going to veggie restaurants we’ve found on the internet hasn’t always been good. Sometimes they no longer exist or they’re closed for August (Paris is particularly prone to this one), or they turn out to be – frankly – a bit strange! Often though, the experience is positive. I think the best one was in the Lake District. Was it Ambleside? It was an Italian restaurant, in the cinema complex, which does a film and meal deal. The food was fantastic - authentic and sophisticated. And we got to see Indiana Jones too. Well, we’ll see what Brussels comes up with. It is so wonderful when I go to a vegetarian restaurant to look at the menu and know that I can have ANYTHING I LIKE from it! I love them all, from the sophisticated gourmet ones to the brown rice and lentils types.

Talking of brown rice and lentils, that’s what we have for tea. The lentils are in the form of a curry, consisting of split red lentils, onions, mushrooms, creamed coconut and various spices. I use brown basmati rice, which takes longer to cook but is more nutritious than the white version.

Sally’s packed lunch for tomorrow is peanut butter sandwiches. I won’t be having leftover curry and rice as there isn’t any.

2008-11-19T02:06:00.000-08:00

Tues 18th Nov.

There’s not a lot to report today. Lunch is toast and Seeds of Change lentil soup – normally quite expensive but this was bought when it was half price at Tesco

After a busy afternoon’s Christmas shopping on the internet, I’m ready for a four thirty snack of crisp breads and guacamole.

I tend to keep Tuesday teas simple, as it’s my day to pick teenagers up from their dance lesson in Canterbury. This trip always takes ages due to rush hour traffic, so I make sure tea’s ready before I go out, so that we don’t have to wait more than the five minute reheating time to get stuck in when we get home. Tonight it’s pasta in a sauce consisting of vegetables and the Tofutti garlic and herb soft “cheese”. Nick has three helpings, and would probably have licked the dish clean if I’d let him.

For tomorrow’s lunchbox I decide to see how Sally will fare with the red cheddar style Cheezly. I put egg-free mayonnaise and tomato in the sandwich for added inspiration.

Then it’s time to relax with a recorded episode of “Spooks” followed by “CSI: Miami.” What better way to end a dark November Tuesday?

2008-11-18T00:09:00.001-08:00

Mon 17th Nov.

On waking up, I realise that I haven’t been having the uncomfortable bloated feeling that I often used to have first thing in the morning. This is nice. Generally, I do feel healthy and I’m confident that I’m eating a well-balanced diet. The children and I have taken a good quality vitamin and mineral supplement for a few years now, so I’m reasonably sure that Sally and I are getting the nutrients we need. We could maybe do with looking at our iodine and Vitamin B12 intake, as vegans can lack sufficient quantities of these if care isn’t taken. Sally should be okay with the B12 as it’s in Marmite as well as her supplement. If we were to continue this diet longer than a month, however, I would certainly investigate supplements specifically for a vegan diet, and I’d look very carefully at what fortification different cereals, soya milks, etc. contained.

Paul’s parents depart this morning. I don’t think they’ve suffered too much, being force-fed beans, tofu, etc.

Talking of Marmite, Sally has it in today’s packed lunch. I have baked potato, vegan “cheese” and salad.

A four o’clock mug of hot chocolate seems appealing. Green and Black’s hot chocolate powder is suitable for vegans, so with soya milk it’s fine. I decide it would be nice to melt some Green and Black’s Maya Gold (dark chocolate with fruit and spice extracts), into it, but check the ingredients first. I’m disappointed to find I can’t have it as it contains milk powder. Whilst I’m at the chocolate tin, I check the Green and Black’s 70% dark chocolate, which I’ve been eating lately. Oops, that also contains milk powder. Who’d have thought it? So that’s off limits now. Better see if I can get some more Cote d’Or or something else suitable.

For tea I make burgers from the Sosmix (a more manageable shape to fry). We have them with the remains of yesterday’s risotto. I have read in the past about not reheating rice due to a toxin that can be present. A quick Google search leads me to the following information: http://www.southwark.gov.uk/businesscentre/foodbusiness/foodhandling/rice.html. I’ve never had any problems with reheating rice, but I’d hate it if anyone reading this went down with food poisoning, so be warned!

I pack tomorrow’s lunchboxes – chickpea and black olive pate sandwiches for Sally.

Then I watch “University Challenge” and get at least four right answers.

2008-11-17T09:04:00.000-08:00

Sun 16th Nov.

It’s funny the things one’s mind seizes on as you lie half awake in the morning. It’s already been a bit of a strange night, involving a dream about a man wearing a tee shirt and thong training Paul and I for a marathon. Well, that’s just never going to happen – either part! Anyway, back to these swirling, misty morning thoughts. Suddenly, they all clarify into one revelation. It wasn’t the record sleeve that was different thirty-three years ago; it was that round bit in the middle of the record! Ahh, now it all makes sense. That’s why I couldn’t give my friend the new record. Phew, I wasn’t such a thick teenager after all. Well, I’m glad that’s all sorted.

Back to the topic of Being Vegan. Lunch is falafel. Sally is left to do what she likes with hers and to inform the absent rest of the family to do the same, whilst mine are chucked into a box and taken with me to Nick’s football match, where I stand eating them in the cold and rain. Nick’s team win the match, so the shivering is worth it.

Back home, I find that Paul and his mum have been to Lidl (He really knows how to give his mum a treat!) and bought, amongst other things, some mince pies that are suitable for vegans. Hurrah! So I have my first one of the year. I refuse to associate them with Christmas yet: it’s MUCH TOO SOON!

I rustle up a quick soya bean risotto for tea, which we eat whilst watching “National Treasure: Book of Secrets”. A nice bit of Sunday evening escapism.

2008-11-16T01:39:00.000-08:00

Sat. 15th Nov.

Worn out after watching Children in Need until late last night, we have long lie-ins and have a late breakfast of crumpets, bagels and muffins. By the time we’ve done this it’s practically time to take Sally into Faversham for her matinee performance. Having dropped her off, Nick, Paul’s mum Mollie and I head for Macknades, an amazing emporium of fruit, vegetables, delicatessen items and “fine foods”, on the edge of Faversham. I buy a packet of egg substitute produced by Orgran, some vegetarian jelly mix (no gelatine), some gorgeous garlic olives and some polenta flour. This last item is because I read a great recipe the other day, involving dipping slices of green tomato in - I think – egg and polenta flour, and frying. I thought I’d attempt some kind of variation on this with the egg substitute and different vegetables. I’ll let you know how it goes.

We skip lunch, as breakfast was so late, but have a drink and afternoon snack at the café at the Apple Craft Centre next to Macknades. Sadly they don’t do soya milk, so I sit and drink ginger beer whilst watching Nick tuck into chocolate cake and Mollie into a toasted teacake with butter.

I find out later that Sally and various cast members went to a café for late lunch between performances and she had baked potato with baked beans. As previously mentioned, she’s not that keen on beans, but I guess she didn’t have much choice. Such courage in the face of adversity.

Once home, Nick makes the jelly and then spends the next hour checking every ten minutes to see if it’s set.

Evening meal is stir-fried tofu and vegetables with noodles. It goes down well and some of us even have seconds. Jelly for pudding. Perfect.

Then we pile into the car to go and watch “Alice”. It’s very good and Sally’s Mad Hatter provides us with a good laugh (in the way it’s meant to!). In the interval I have dark chocolate and red wine. A perfect night out.

Back home, in celebratory mood, Paul disappears into the kitchen to whip up salsa and guacamole, so we have a late night snack of these with tortilla chips.

Sally is sad that “Alice” is over and I try to reassure her that life is still worth living.

2008-11-15T08:56:00.001-08:00

Fri 14th Nov.

It occurs to me that, now that we’re in the swing of our vegan challenge, there’s not always that much to talk about, so I decide I’ll throw a few random non-food related items into the blog here and there. Inspiration for the first such item comes as I read an article in a magazine about vinyl records whilst eating breakfast (Jordan’s Country Crisp with muesli mixed in). About thirty-three years ago when I was a teenager Up North I borrowed a friend’s record – I can’t remember what it was. Inevitably I managed to scratch it. I felt guilty about this and decided to buy a new one and give him that without telling him about the scratch. I duly went and bought a new one (which probably cost about £2 in those days), and then realised that the record sleeve was a different design. So I just gave him back the original record with the scratch without saying anything. Today, thirty-odd years later, I ask myself two questions: a) Why didn’t I notice that the sleeve was different when I bought it? And b) Why didn’t I just put the new record into the old sleeve?! I suppose there’s also a third question: why have I only just thought of that obvious solution? Anyway, my friend never mentioned the scratch, so I think I got away with it.

Paul arrives back from America just before lunch. As he’s been overeating all week, he doesn’t want any lunch. I do give him a raw carrot though – it’ll help combat all those aeroplane germs. With my carrot I have a houmous, chicken style slice and salad sandwich.

Paul’s parents are coming today to stay for the weekend and watch Sally Mad Hattering. They’re meat eaters, so I’ll try to be gentle with them and not feed them tofu until at least tomorrow.

For tea we have sausage and aduku bean casserole with mashed potato and mashed swede and carrot. Everybody seems to cope. Nick points out that we’ve had potatoes a lot this week. He’s right; somehow I haven’t managed my usual well-balanced variety of carbs throughout the week. Noodles tomorrow then.

2008-11-13T11:32:00.000-08:00

Thurs 13th Nov.

Today’s Tesco trip (Another one already? But yes, it is a week since the last time) makes no real demands, vegan food wise. A tin of kidney beans to replace the last one, and yet more falafels are the only vaguely specialised items, and they’re the kind of thing I buy often anyway. Oh, one bright spot in the visit is that they’re giving away a Green and Black’s Chocolate Recipes book free with three bars of Green and Black’s chocolate. I buy this regularly, so it’s no hardship to stock up now. It turns out that plenty of the recipes require dark chocolate or cocoa powder, so we’re all right there. Sally can’t wait to get creating. It’s great having a child who likes baking.

For lunch I have the remains of yesterday’s roast veg, with some kidney beans left over from another day mixed in, and a tofu-hazelnut burger. I keep calling these “burgers” but according to the packet, they’re actually “cutlets”. They’re made by Taifun, and are a handy lunchtime standby, despite the price. The roast vegetables are bereft of potatoes, as Sally picked them out and ate them on arriving home from rehearsal last night. How bad is that?

Well, it’s Sally’s first performance of “Alice” tonight, and I decide on convenience food for tea, which I can just stick in the oven. This means I’m not rushing to get a meal together between picking Nick up from after-school football and taking Sally to the theatre. We have oven chips (big treat!), peas and sweet corn, and quorn burgers for Nick and nut cutlets and Butternut and Cranberry roasts for Sally and I. These last two are from Tesco’s frozen Meat Free range. I dip my chips in egg-free mayonnaise. Mmm, highly satisfactory.

Sally’s packed lunch for tomorrow is houmous and tomato sandwiches. Phew, I don’t have to think about lunchboxes again until Sunday night.

2008-11-12T10:19:00.001-08:00

Weds 12th Nov.

I receive a very supportive email from The Vegetarian Society today, offering me lots of encouragement and resources and asking if I’d be happy for a link to this blog to be added to their e-newsletter. Yes please!

Lunch is houmous, tomato and chicken style slices (a Redwood product) on various crisp breads and oatcakes, with the almost obligatory raw carrot. (It’s strange how I never tire of these.) Very acceptable. The slices taste nothing like my very distant memory of chicken but are fine in their own right.

For the evening meal I prepare roast vegetables and falafel – the Tesco ones I mentioned earlier. Chopping up vegetables is my favourite kitchen activity. It offers a good opportunity to listen to the radio, reflect on life, possibly have a glass of wine (not tonight though as I have to drive later), and do one’s pelvic floor exercises. How’s that for multi-tasking? Sally has her falafels in the form of a wrap with houmous, as, once again, we are straight out of the door when she arrives: dress rehearsal tonight. The production, by the way, is “Alice in Wonderland” at the Arden Theatre in Faversham. Sally is the Mad Hatter. It’s appropriate.

I decide to give the Tofutti garlic and herb “cream cheese” a go for Sally’s lunchbox tomorrow. Naturally I have a taste, and am pleasantly surprised. It’s really not far off the real thing, and I defy even my daughter to detect the usual soya aftertaste. However, as I scan the list of ingredients, I am disappointed to see “partially hydrogenated soybean oil”. I avoid hydrogenated fats as much as possible, and am not happy to see them here. When I tell Sally what she has for tomorrow’s lunch, she reminds me that she’s not actually that keen on even the dairy form of garlic and herb cheese. Oh well, one day it’ll sink in, I’m sure.

2008-11-11T12:14:00.000-08:00

Tues 11th Nov.

Once the children have gone to school, I find myself doing a bit of soul-searching in the bath. What will I do when the month’s up? I was never planning to go vegan permanently, but what are my excuses for not doing so? When non-vegetarians tell me that they could never give up meat, I think, “Well, you could, but you don’t want to.” Now it’s me thinking I couldn’t permanently give up dairy and eggs, but of course I could; I just don’t want to. I’ve always reasoned that just because you like the taste of something, that’s not an excuse for eating it if it involves cruel practices. And there is certainly cruelty and suffering in the egg and dairy industry just as there is in the meat industry. So really, I have no excuses for not continuing to be vegan forever. I suppose one reason for my reluctance is that it would make eating outside the home harder. I don’t actually do this that often, but if I do go out with friends, it’s rarely a problem to find a choice of vegetarian food. Vegan though, that is certainly harder. Indian’s good, Thai and Chinese too; but Italian’s fairly hopeless, Mexican problematic too, I imagine. And I’d be a real pain in the neck at other people’s houses, whereas at the moment I’m only a slight pain. As for European holidays, they would be tricky. As it is we always self cater, as Europe is not known for its progressive attitude towards vegetarianism; but the fortnight’s holiday does tend to be a bit of a cheese-fest as this is the main source of protein available to us, apart from tinned lentils. Yes, there are occasional veggie restaurants and in the larger hypermarkets you can even find primitive veggie burgers, but Europe is generally a bit of a vegetarian wilderness. Perhaps I could reach a compromise by eating vegan at home but reverting to vegetarian when away from home if necessary? But if I knew I wasn’t really vegan, I suspect I wouldn’t stick to it at home either. Anyway, let’s finish the month and see how I feel, and how my taste buds have adapted.

Meanwhile, onto today’s activities. I decide that I need to stock up at Canterbury Wholefoods. I buy more of the things we’ve liked plus some frozen Realeat chicken style pieces and garlic and herb cream “cheese”. (If it’s terrible, it can go into another pasta sauce!) There isn’t any Beanfeast pate, so I get chickpea and black olive instead. Oh, and I grab a fruit and oat bar to stave off the hunger pangs until lunch. I have to be careful here as so many of these bars contain honey. Holland and Barrett let me down by not having any Jumbo (or any other size) Sos Rolls in. Sorry Kids, it’s boring old sandwiches in your lunchboxes all week.

Then it’s home via the farm shop for more fruit and vegetables. For lunch I have the rest of yesterday’s chilli and rice, with…yes, a raw carrot. Sally has chicken style slices in her lunchbox, which she later informs me were fairly uninspiring. I shove another sandwich at her when she walks through the door, as we’re straight off out to a technical rehearsal. This is a smoked “cheese”, egg-free mayonnaise and cucumber wrap, which she eats in the car. “Have you tried the smoked cheese?” she asks me ominously. Apparently she finds it has a strange aftertaste. I wonder what she’ll think of the cheddar style Cheezly on baked potato awaiting her when she gets in later! I have mine as soon I get back. Nick has dairy cheese with his and after a minute in the microwave it looks bubblingly delicious. I give mine the same treatment and it emerges with a rather unappealing not-quite- melted –yet-a-bit-congealed look. However, it tastes surprisingly good, especially with a green salad with Nick’s favourite salad dressing – various oils, balsamic vinegar and ground black pepper.

I’ve emailed everyone I can think of about this diary, and today I receive an encouraging reply from the Vegan Society (http://www.vegansociety.com/). They tell me about their Animal Free Shopper, a guide to products suitable for vegans, and also about their mentor scheme, where someone is available to answer any questions you may have when you take their Vegan Pledge. The Pledge is a commitment to going vegan for a week, fourteen days or a month with the society giving you a pack with recipes and guidance.

Perhaps we’ll have falafel tomorrow. I’m already looking forward to it!

2008-11-10T12:30:00.000-08:00

Mon 10th Nov.

This morning I have a dodgy soya milk moment. Coffee morning’s at my house this week and I serve everyone their coffee and make my own with soya milk. But mine curdles nastily and I have to start again. I’ve used the milk left in the bottle I took out yesterday for café purposes, and I suppose it’s gone off in the same way dairy milk does. It’s funny how I’ve never really considered this possibility. More care required, then. Or I could keep a carton of UHT soya milk for taking out.

I receive an email from Animal Aid offering support and encouragement and telling me they’re adding a link to this blog from their website. It seems amazing that the whole world is able to read my ramblings.

I have another spelt-sunflower burger for lunch, with the other half of the tin of baked beans from the other day. This scuppers my plans to cook something beany for tea. So I decide upon vegemince chilli, rice and green salad, with just a few token kidney beans. Nick makes me proud when he announces, “Mm, I love salad dressing”, as he tucks in. My work here is done. Well, not quite: I just have to persuade him he loves kidney beans too. I’m sad to say that neither child shares my love of pulses – a slight drawback on our normal vegetarian diet, let alone a vegan one. Yet another reason to make my own burgers: I can hide mushed up beans in them.

A while back I said that I’d return to the topic of Sally’s leather school shoes, and this seems like as good a time as any. As vegetarians, we’re not happy with the idea of buying and using leather, sheepskin, silk or anything of that ilk. We’re okay with wool, but wouldn’t be if we were genuinely vegan. However, I do have leather shoes, belts and bags that I acquired before I’d thought the issue through, and my intention is to keep using these until they wear out. But I haven’t bought any leather items for myself for about ten years and don’t intend to do so. I don’t buy shoes and bags and belts, etc very often anyway, and when I do I either buy canvas or some kind of cloth, or I go to websites such as http://www.vegetarian-shoes.co.uk/ or http://www.ethicalwares.com/. I’m in a bit of a quandary though when it comes to the kids’ shoes. To start with, the vegetarian shoe market seems to cater mainly for adults. Also, as the kids’ feet are still growing, and as they’ve both inherited my ridiculously wide feet, I have to go for wider-fitting shoes in a more flexible material for them, and unfortunately this does tend to rule out the non-leather ones. We can get away with it more with Sally as there are plenty of canvas pumps and faux suede boots on the market (and Nick has some canvas baseball boots), but we have to be careful with school shoes, particularly since all the hoo-hah with her ingrown toenail! So, sadly, we do compromise our principles on this issue, for the time being at least.

2008-11-09T13:42:00.000-08:00

Sun 9th Nov.

Why do one’s teenage children never tell you when they’ve used the last of something? Words fail to describe the disappointment I feel when I come to mix maple syrup into this morning’s quinoa flake porridge with chopped dates, only to find that Sally has left only a pathetic dribble. I have to use sugar instead. It’s not the same. Actually, it’s still very nice and I get over it quite quickly.

We head for the Remembrance Day parade in town, as Nick is a Scout. After dropping him at the scout hut, I go and wait in a cafe for the parade to start. Once again, to my delight, I don’t need to use my own soya milk in coffee as it is cheerfully provided. Thank you, Tea and Times of Whitstable. It’s starting to feel almost too easy, this Vegan lark. I’d thought that expecting any kind of decent catering on leaving the house was just too fanciful, but so far it’s been fine. Mind you, I haven’t tried to eat out yet, apart from the Chinese takeaway. With such thoughts in mind, I do ring home to advise Sally to make herself some sandwiches before going out for most of the day to the cinema and rehearsals. I know she’ll just eat chips otherwise.

I nip into Somerfield while I’m in town to get Bourbons for Sally and posh biscuits (which I won’t be able to eat) for coffee morning at my house tomorrow.

My lunch consists of the Beanfeast pate on toast and raw carrot. Yes, I know, I do eat a lot of raw carrots. I may be wrong, but I’m convinced they have magical cold-staving-off properties. This is based on the fact that when Nick was pre-school age, he and I used to eat them most days at lunchtime and we hardly ever got colds whilst Paul and Sally did. Hardly scientific research, but I’m unwavering in my conviction. Luckily, we’ve never turned orange either. Anyway, the pate is good. Sally liked it too the other day, so I’ll be getting more of that, despite the expense. I did notice from the label though that it contains soya protein. Is there no escape from the ubiquitous soya?

We don’t really go in for a big traditional Sunday meal. My reasoning is that as I cook proper meals all week, it’s nice to have a break at the weekend and prepare something easier. This often means something like Quorn burger and oven chips. However, we have a busy week of dashing about to technical and dress rehearsals, not to mention actual performances, next week, so I want to save the easy meals for then. I decide, therefore, to give the vegetables in satay sauce (inspired by the Animal Aid website) a whirl tonight. It’s very simple and doesn’t take long. We have it with (egg-free) noodles. Well, I enjoy it. Sally eats it all but declares it “a bit too creamy”; and Nick positively dislikes it, on the - not unreasonable - grounds that he isn’t all that keen on peanuts. Oh well, at least it was a soya-free zone.

On to tomorrow’s lunchboxes. If it’s Monday it must be Marmite. Sorted.

2008-11-09T00:42:00.001-08:00

Sat 8th Nov.

A major breakthrough occurs today. I realise that I am swigging back my coffee without being acutely aware of the difference between it and the milk version. Well, there’s a result.

Paul has gone to America on business so I don’t have to consider his tastes this week, not that he’s hard to please.

Lunch is very easy – Covent Garden minestrone soup, on special offer in Tesco. It’s a typical weekend lunch.

I have a look at the Animal Aid website – http://www.animalaid.org.uk/h/n/AA/HOME. As you’d expect, it’s loaded with information on the benefits of going vegan and how to do so. There’s a free Go Vegan Guide you can send for. They’ve also put in a 21-day recipe planner especially for Vegan Month. This turns out to be really good. Many of the ides are very simple and there’s nothing weird! It allows you to open windows for more information on many of the ingredients they suggest, and I am pleased to discover that original Bisto powder is suitable. We do use it normally as I know it’s okay for vegetarians, but we don’t keep it in the original packet, so I haven’t been able to check to see if it’s also vegan. (Yes, I know I could have looked in Tesco, but I didn’t think to, okay?!) Anyway, I get quite excited by the recipe for coconut rice, as well as spicy parsnip patties, and vegetables in satay sauce. It’s gratifying to see them also advocating such fare as baked potato and baked beans, bangers and mash, and Marmite on toast. Perhaps most thrilling of all is learning that there’s a vegan “bacon” out there. So that’s “bacon” butties back on the menu.

Sally keeps begging me to go and buy Tesco Value Bourbon biscuits as someone at school has told her they’re suitable for vegans. But I’m afraid I can’t be bothered. I do suggest she might like to get on her bike and get her own, but, as it’s chucking it down, this idea is rejected.

Tea is yesterday’s leftover pasta with Vegi Deli sausages with extra veg. and pumpkin and sunflower seeds mixed in. And jolly tasty it is too.

Veggie to Vegan: the Non-Dairy Diary.

2008-11-08T09:36:00.000-08:00

From vegetarian to vegan. How hard can it be to make the jump? That is just what my 14-year-old daughter and I have decided to find out.

November is the charity Animal Aid’s “Vegan Month” and we pair of hardened vegetarians have opted to take up the challenge of going vegan for the month.

As vegetarians we are used to eating beans, chickpeas, lentils, tofu and their ilk. So far, so good. But what about my addiction to egg mayonnaise sandwiches? And how will Sally the Cheese Lover cope without her dairy fix? (Or with swapping milk chocolate for dark?) As for tea and coffee, will they even be worth drinking without a splash of milk? Will we learn to love tea with soya milk? Or will we broaden our horizons and discover the delights of, say, rooibos tea?

Moreover, what of our health? Will we feel weak and lethargic, or brimming with energy and vitality? Just as importantly, will I finally lose my jelly belly?

Well, we’re about to find out, and you can share in our experiences as you read our journal: From Veggie to Vegan: The Non-Dairy Diary.

Fri. 31st Oct

Well, here we go. It’s been a busy week (half term) and it’s only just occurred to me that I need to go shopping to make sure we have some appropriate food ready for the start of our vegan month. So, off to Tesco for the weekly shop. To my amazement, cars are queuing up to get in. Why? It’s not Christmas. Or any other bank holiday. Yes, it’s Hallowe’en, but when did that become such a major event as to necessitate laying siege to Tesco?

Once inside, I just want to be out as quickly as possible. This is not a frame of mind conducive to having a good browse around Tesco’s vegan offerings. I manage to grab soya milk, which I buy every week anyway; soya “yoghurts”, which I’ve had before; tofu, something else we’re very familiar with; tins of various types of beans; non-dairy spread (have to read labels carefully for this); a rather expensive packet of crushed sunflower and pumpkin seeds (instant protein); and non-dairy alternative to cream cheese, which I didn’t know existed. However, I can’t find “Cheezly”, a vegan hard “cheese” that I know they had in there just the other week. Nor do I have any luck with sausages. Plenty suitable for vegetarians, but they all contain egg, whey powder or some other unsuitable ingredient.

I try to make sure there are treats enough for Sally, such as lemon sorbet, peanuts, crisps and biscuits in case she feels too deprived of all her favourite foods. Again, label scrutiny is de rigueur. Pom-Bears? They’re a no- no as they contain whey powder and milk protein. Yes, I know what you’re asking: why does a 14-year-old want Pom-Bears? Well, I really buy them for my 11-year-old son, but if they’re in the house, Sally will eat them too. So I buy plain crisps instead. Nick, my son, will just have to put up with treats that Sally can eat too. The same goes for biscuits. After five minutes of perusing labels and rejecting most of the kids’ favourites, I decide that Rich Tea will have to do.

And so, on with the rest of the shopping, and home, only to realise that I’ve forgotten the houmous, a staple of my usual diet, and definitely required for the coming month.

Right, egg mayonnaise sandwiches for lunch, which I linger over, savouring every mouthful. Curry containing milk for tea. And that’s it. We’re ready. Bring it on!

Sat. 1st Nov.

I wake up feeling positive. Sally has momentarily forgotten that we’re now temporary vegans and, when reminded, panics over what to have for breakfast. Bizarrely, she keeps thinking that we can’t have bread. She is relieved to discover that toast is still on the menu.

Breakfast is easy – toast, porridge, that sort of thing. Lunch too – beans on toast, peanut butter on toast. (Hmm, a bit of a toast theme emerging here; better keep an eye on that.) And various raw vegetables. It’s all pretty normal stuff.

After Sally’s hair appointment, we call in at Herbaceous, the local Medical Herbalist/environmentally aware whole food and gift shop. This renders up egg-free mayonnaise and “Sosmix”(Yes, we WILL have sausages!) It also offers up an issue we hadn’t thought of. Will we be wanting vegan washing-up liquid and soap, wonders the proprieter. Ooh, we hadn’t thought about that. Yes, I always endeavour to buy cruelty-free toiletries, cosmetics and household products but have never needed to know if they’re vegan. I know that if they contain lanolin (from sheep’s wool) or honey, then they’re not vegan, and no doubt there are other things to be avoided too, but I haven’t looked into the ingredients of our current veggie-friendly products. I more or less on the spot make the decision to keep using the stuff we have already at home, but to try to buy vegan-friendly if I need anything during the month. Is this my first failure? Probably, but I’ll live with the compromise. At this point Sally mutters something about her leather school shoes. More on this issue later.

Rooibos tea is our beverage of choice upon arriving home. It’s okay. Okay, as in not really what I’d choose but it’ll do! I don’t think it contains caffeine and later I start to get a caffeine-withdrawal headache. I try to combat this with a cup of black coffee. Same reaction: I can drink it but I’d rather have milk in it.

The next challenge is the evening meal. I’ve never been one for preparing different meals for different family members. (They get what they’re given and are grateful!), So I need to cook something that can be enjoyed, or at least tolerated, by all of us. “All of us”, by the way, means myself, daughter Sally, son Nick and husband Paul. I’ve been vegetarian for about twenty-three years; the kids have been brought up vegetarian; Paul is a meat-eater who happily cooks and eats veggie at home unless he feels like doing himself something carnivorous. Anyway, back to today’s dinner (or “tea”, as we Northerners prefer to call it). There’s some quinoa lurking in the cupboard, and I decide to be adventurous and do something with that. Quinoa, in case you didn’t know, is a grain cultivated in Ecuador and was a staple part of the diet of the ancient Inca people. (I read that on the back of the packet.) It’s also a protein, is gluten free and is pronounced keenwa. You can use it where you might use rice or cous cous. It only takes about twenty minutes to cook and ends up a bit like coarse cous cous. Oh yes, and you can also get quinoa flakes to use as porridge. I got it from Canterbury Wholefoods, a wonderful cornucopia of excitingly different foods. Tonight I combine it with various vegetables and frozen fresh (yes, it does make sense; I mean, as opposed to dried) soya beans. I get these from Tesco’s frozen vegetable department. They’re great for chucking into just about any recipe to give extra protein, as well as counting towards your five-a-day. So we end up with a sort of alternative risotto, and I don’t want to boast, but it’s really rather nice, and we all have seconds!

Sun 2nd Nov.

It’s my birthday! After graciously receiving lots of lovely presents from the family, I consume yet more toast, this time with jam, as it’s a special occasion. Sally has bagels, a weekend favourite.

Today I decide to try soya milk in my coffee, and hey, it’s much better than I expected. Coffee drinking is suddenly worthwhile again.

At lunchtime, I’m delighted to find out that the falafels (little balls made from chickpeas and spices) previously bought from Tesco’s frozen meat-free department are suitable for vegans. Yesss, another family staple I can continue to enjoy.

We have a pleasant day, consisting of a stroll along Herne Bay sea front, and an afternoon of slobbing out on the sofa with a DVD. Naturally this builds up an appetite for my birthday Chinese Takeaway. Right, egg fried rice is obviously out, and we’d better not have noodles, as they’ll most likely contain egg. So, plain boiled rice it is then. With Monk’s Lohan vegetables with Bean Curd – item S1 at the Golden Wok in Seasalter. And a side portion of Fried Mushrooms with Garlic – item 119. It’s gorgeous. Bean curd is another name for soya and I don’t know what they do to it, but it tastes much better than any tofu I’ve ever cooked (though mine is good too, of course!). Sally enjoys it too, enough to compensate for her disappointment over not being able to have the fried rice.

It’s back to school for the kids tomorrow so I have the joy of making lunch boxes. I play safe with good old Marmite sandwiches. You can’t go wrong there, can you?

Mon 3rd Nov.

Mondays are always Coffee Morning Day. The group was born from myself and a few other mums I met when I moved to Whitstable eight years ago and took Nick to Toddler Gym Club. Over the years, various people have come and gone but there has always been a zealous group, who see Coffee Morning as a definite priority amidst work and family commitments, a chance to indulge in both idle and serious chat, and psyche ourselves up for the rest of the week. Today it’s at Jo’s house and I’ve taken along my own bottle of soya milk. Sadly, I have to turn down the homemade apple cake, on egg and dairy grounds, and then listen as everyone else extols its deliciousness.

Lunch is a baked potato with baked beans. Who could ask for more? Evening meal is a bog-standard typical Monday night Spag. Bol. Luckily, Tesco’s own vegetarian mince, which we have often, is also vegan.

Oh yes, and I try soya milk in tea today. It’s not bad, but I think I’ll be drinking more coffee than tea in the coming weeks. Unfortunately, I’ve never really come to terms with herbal teas and infusions, so it’s either tea and soya, rooibos or coffee. And I’m not actually that keen on rooibos!

Tues 4th Nov.

Weekday breakfasts are settling into a pattern of Jordan’s Country Crisp with strawberries, and soya milk for both Sally and I. I thought Sally might struggle with the soya milk, but she’s fine with it.

Sally’s lunch box contains sandwiches with the soya “cream cheese”. I had a taste last night whilst preparing the lunches, and considered that it did have some of the flavour of the real thing, yet with a soya tang. Mm, maybe not entirely successful. Still, as I’m not that fussy and always very hungry by lunchtime, I have some on crisp breads and oatcakes. It fills a gap. When Sally gets home she informs me that she disliked it quite heartily. Well, what am I supposed to do with the rest of the packet, then? No doubt it will find its way into some kind of pasta sauce. I won’t tell anybody it’s in there and I should get away with it.

Tea manages to keep everyone happy: tofu and vegetable stir-fry (plus crushed sunflower and pumpkin seeds thrown in for good measure) with rice. Yes, I think we covered all our basic food groups there.

Sally helps out at her school’s Open Evening for prospective Year 7s and is unable to accept the teacher’s reward- offering of a bag of Maltesers. She copes.

Preparing tomorrow’s lunchboxes (peanut butter sandwiches for Sally), I just manage to stop myself from unthinkingly licking the knife used for Nick’s chocolate spread sandwiches. Phew!

Weds 5th Nov.

This is the day I’ve been waiting for – a trip into Canterbury, which will include a visit to Canterbury Wholefoods to stock up on all the things I haven’t been able to get so far. Ooh, what a treasure trove. I emerge with houmous, Cheezly Mature Red Cheddar Style and super melting Mozzarella Style, Sheese Smoked Cheddar Style, Redwood’s chicken style slices, Vegi Deli’s Lincolnshire style sausages and Beanfeast pate, some vegan pesto sauce, spelt-sunflower tofu cutlets, and, I’m proud to say, Clear Spring washing up liquid and laundry liquid, both of which are vegan as well as environmentally friendly. That lot should keep us going for a while. I also nip into Holland and Barrett for a couple of Jumbo Sos Rolls for the kids’ lunch boxes – a bit of an antidote to the usual sandwiches. The allergy information says that the rolls were prepared in a factory handling dairy products, but I decide that this is okay; it’s just information pointing out the possible risk to people with dairy allergies, not a declaration of unsuitability for vegans. I make a mental note to tell Sally this, as I know she’ll fret over it if she reads the label.

Mid morning I head for Debenham’s café, who do consistently good coffee, in my opinion. I am armed with my bottle of soya milk, but no, I don’t need it. The menu board announces that soya milk is available, and, sure enough, when I ask, it is produced with no fuss and in a sensible quantity. Great, another pleasure I won’t have to forego. Thanks, Debenhams.

On the way home I stop off at the Blean Farm Shop and buy plenty of fruit and vegetables, including some of their frozen fruit salads, which make a great dessert.

I have to confess I’ve spent quite a lot on this morning’s purchases. However, the alternative cheese products are probably about the same price as the organic cheese I normally buy at Tesco. The pesto cost a lot, and the chicken style slices cost more than the Quorn ones I normally buy. I wouldn’t usually buy the pate, but I want to be able to give Sally a fair amount of variety in her packed lunches (and I’m not too confident about her liking the vegan “cheese”!).

Back home I heat up yesterday’s leftover stir-fry for lunch and polish it off. We have very little waste in this house!

I mentioned Quorn earlier. This is something we eat regularly, as it comes in the form of chunks (good for curries, casseroles, stir-fries, etc.), sausages, burgers, and even “bacon” slices. I generally get the frozen versions from Tesco’s frozen meat-free section, but you can get chilled versions too. The sandwich slices are, somewhat off-puttingly for me, in the cooked meats department. Unfortunately though, Quorn isn’t suitable for vegans as it contains egg white and milk proteins.

For tea, I decide it’s time to crack open the Sosmix. Well, that turns out to be relatively easy. Just add water, wait ten minutes, shape into sausages and fry in a lightly greased pan. The frying is a bit of a kerfuffle as the sausages stick a bit, but that’s frying for you. I hardly ever fry things like sausages or burgers and I’m not happy that the smell wafts round the house and clings to my clothes and hair just before I have to go out to take small boys to football practice and hulking great teenagers to drama rehearsals, with the consequence that the car reeks of frying too. Still, it’s all worth it as the whole family is suitably impressed, even Paul, who’s not really a veggie sausage fan. We have them with mashed potato, carrot and swede, and broccoli. Tradition with a twist.

In the car on the way to the aforementioned drama rehearsal, Sally regales us with the sorry tale of the chocolate cake she couldn’t eat earlier at school, when one of her friends had brought birthday cake in. The other teenagers are entirely unsympathetic: one of them declares that being a vegan is “sad”! All the same, she remains undeterred.

Thurs 6th Nov.

Tesco day again. I can’t believe it’s nearly a week since my last visit. I’m pleased not to be scouring the shelves for specialist vegan stuff, though a little put out by the empty space where the tofu should be. Has Tesco had a sudden run on tofu from the hordes of people in Whitstable doing Vegan Month? Or did someone just forget to order it? Either way, it’s off the menu for a while. I buy more of their very tasty falafel and a packet of frozen nut cutlets for good measure.

Later at home I prepare myself the ultimate comfort food lunch (not that I need comforting; I just like the food). The remains of last night’s mash, half a tin of baked beans and some bits of the Cheezly Smoked Cheddar Style – all mixed together and heated in the microwave. Oh yum! And some healthy fruit for dessert!

Paul comes home from work earlier than usual and decides to cook himself sausage and fried egg. While he’s at it, he does a fried egg butty for Nick. The boy’s in Heaven. He does love his fried egg butties. So that just leaves Sally and I. I’ve left it quite late by now, so decide on “cheese”, tomatoes and mushrooms on toast, even though it’ll be my second lot of Cheezly that day. I use the “super melting” Mozzarella. Of course, it doesn’t, and the toast starts to burn while the “cheese” is still solid. I admit that it could have been my own fault, for piling the vegetables over the top of the Cheezly. Anyway, I stick it in the microwave for a minute, and it comes out meltingly perfect. Tastes pretty good too – very mild, but then, it is supposed to be like Mozzarella.

Sally, in desperation, has turned to dark chocolate. Luckily, we have some Cote d’Or, brought back from one of his European business jaunts by Paul, and that keeps her happy. She wonders whether the Bournville offering in her dad’s birthday box of Cadbury’s Heroes will be suitable too, but alas, no – Bournville isn’t as dark as you might think as it contains milk.

Preparing lunch boxes (Beanfeast pate sandwiches for Sally), I have another almost-knife-licking incident with Nick’s garlic and herb soft cheese. I’m really going to have to watch that.

Fri 7th Nov.

Today my copy of Outrage, Animal Aid’s magazine, arrives. It has a feature on Vegan Month, of course and urges me to check out their website. Yep, I’ll get round to that. I see a large advert for the previously mentioned Sheese and study with interest the wide range of products they make, including a garlic and herb creamy “cheese”. Ooh, I’ll have to try that.

Lunch is a spelt-sunflower seed burger with houmous and raw carrot. I often have this, but must confess these burgers are rather expensive. I’m always saying I’ll make my own burgers, but rarely get round to doing it. In this dodgy economic climate though, I really must make the effort.

Tonight’s meal needs to have strong whole-family appeal as I’m depriving us of a much-loved recently established family tradition, that of Stuffed Pasta Friday! As the stuffing tends to be cheese, that’s out. I suppose I could make my own, but, as the quote almost goes, life’s too short to stuff pasta! So it’s plain pasta with a sauce consisting of vegetables, a jar of vegan pesto, vegetable stock, and yes, I sneak in the remains of the disliked cream “cheese” (and yes, I do get away with it). It’s a success, with the kids having seconds. The protein has come from the pine nuts in the pesto as well as the soya “cheese”. I do wonder whether we’re relying too much on soya in all its various forms, and not having enough variety. So I decide I’d better start looking at meals with pulses and nuts too.